| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach: Jeremiah 42: 10 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent Me of the evil that I have done unto you. Jeremiah 42: 11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD; for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jeremiah 42: 12 And I will grant you compassion, that he may have compassion upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
Jeremiah 42: 13 But if ye say: We will not abide in this land; so that ye hearken not to the voice of the LORD your God;
Jeremiah 42: 14 saying: No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the horn, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we abide;
Jeremiah 42: 15 now therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jeremiah 42: 16 then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
Jeremiah 42: 17 So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
The Tanach |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: "Because he was clean-shaven to-day at noon, before we rode out.
I remember perfectly how nice and smooth and brown his face
looked."
"Oh, do you? Well, if your memory for faces is so good, maybe
you can tell me which one of these cowboys wasn't clean-shaven."
"Merely a matter of elimination," replied Helen, merrily. "It
was not Nick; it was not Nels; it was not Frankie. There was
only one other cowboy with us, and he had a short, stubby growth
of black beard, much like that cactus we passed on the trail."
"Oh, I was afraid of it," moaned Dorothy. "I knew he was going
to do it. That horrible little smiling demon, Monty Price!"
The Light of Western Stars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: legged monster rising from the lower deeps. The slush-lamp went
over, drowned in its own fat, while the midday twilight scarce
percolated through the dirty canvas of the tent.
"For the love of Gawd, Jan, get yer senses back!" pleaded Red
Bill. "We ain't goin' to hurt yeh, 'r kill yeh, 'r anythin' of
that sort. Jes' want to hang yeh, that's all, an' you a-messin'
round an' rampagin' somethin' terrible. To think of travellin'
trail together an' then bein' treated this-a way. Wouldn't
'bleeved it of yeh, Jan!"
"He's got too much steerage-way. Grab holt his legs, Taylor, and
heave'm over!"
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: keenest, and that all famous marksmen had them.
Nevertheless, this one had missed.
A counter-swirl had caught Fahrquhar and turned him half
round; he was again looking at the forest on the bank
opposite the fort. The sound of a clear, high voice in a
monotonous singsong now rang out behind him and came across
the water with a distinctness that pierced and subdued all
other sounds, even the beating of the ripples in his ears.
Although no soldier, he had frequented camps enough to know
the dread significance of that deliberate, drawling,
aspirated chant; the lieutenant on shore was taking a part in
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
